Corporate Staffing Services Kenya Job Search Statistics.
Corporate Staffing Services Kenya staff conducted an informal research on how Kenyan jobs become available to candidates.
Amazingly 25% of Kenyan jobs are filled informally. Normally you will get employed because you know manager so and so in a Kenyan company. More commonly referred to as networking.
50% of all jobs in Kenya are never advertised formally. Either a Kenyan company will seek the services of a recruitment firm i.e Corporate Staffing Services or request their employees to spread the word. They are many reasons why a company would do this number one being to save time and cost. Recruiting the best candidate is a lengthy and costly affair. From advertising, short listing, interview etc. And for any given job the response average 300-500 CV’s. Your typical HR manager has many other tasks apart from hiring.
When a HR or company management engages a Kenyan recruitment firm like Corporate Staffing Services not only does the company cut costs but also time as we only present the best fit candidate. Same case with a company that asks their employees to spread the word. The only disadvantage of this is that a company may end up with employees who think, reason and act the same thus robbing the company diversity and such close knit employees can sink a company.
Another 25% of the jobs will be advertised and mainly on Fridays Daily Nation Newspaper. In here you will mostly find senior positions either because it mandatory for the company to advertise i.e policy or the company wants to find out the skill set available in the Kenyan job market.
Most job candidates rely on the last method and that’s why Fridays Daily Nation is a hot sell. What a candidates forgets is that he is doing the same thing like everyone else and thus the competition is normally very high when it comes to these jobs. With certainty many will apply for the jobs but few get called for interviews. The competition is just too hot and with a good reason. A typical newspaper advert and especially accounting jobs in Kenya will attract candidates in the range of thousands for just one post.
My advice for candidates is to seek cheaper and alternative methods the first one being establishing a network of friends within and outside your industry who can help you with your job search. This is a time tested way for looking for a new job or greener pastures.
Tomorrow we look into the cost of job searching.